On Mar 31, 9:51�am, "RonB" wrote:
Some of the franchises do very well. *Some of them do not. *It depends
on the guy who's running the operation.

I think success of any retail operation depends on the people on the sales
floor. *I went into a KC Woodcraft about 6 years ago and asked some very
basic questions about a Unisaw sitting on the showroom floor. *The salesman
who greeted us could not answer questions - OK. *But I was amazed that no
one else in the store seemed able, or interested in finding the info.

I had a pickup sitting in front of the store and was prepared to haul a
machine back to Wichita, about 180 miles south. *Fortunately, this
experience, and my lonesome examination of the machine on their floor,
lengthened my research process. *I have thoroughtly enjoyed my Grizzly
1023S.

RonB

I simply do not understand franchise owners who allow problems to
develop. The basic nut going into one of these things is on the order
of a half million bucks, not something most of us can toss in the
trash because we're too lazy to pay attention to training and too
goofy to train staff.

As some of you may recall, I don't much care for Woodcraft, but I know
they train their franchisees well, and are generally quite careful
about siting the stores.

Part of the problem with smaller stores may well be market size. The
problems really arise when a woodworker goes into the store and finds
about a tenth the selection her or she expects. There is then no
return trip. We've got a similar company store (I think) in Roanoke. I
went in there twice, buying some lumber once, but finding absolutely
nothing I wanted otherwise. And the store is tucked into a corner in a
strip mall next to a huge store and a couple larger ones. Not great
siting from a visual standpoint, but a site with a huge amount of
traffic. I haven't been there in about 18 months, so it may now be
gone.